Hands On: New Kinect Games Take You From Disneyland to Tatooine

Dance Central 2

One of the best-selling on the platform, the one thing Harmonix's original dancing game for Kinect lacks is a proper two-player mode. Dance Central 2 has it. You'll be able to import all your songs from the first game into the sequel, and play them in tandem.

The Microsoft booth demo went pretty much like you'd imagine. I picked an embarrassing song ("Venus" by Bananarama) and we attempted to do cool dance moves but mostly just flailed and laughed. Then we watched Harmonix representatives do it correctly.

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Kinect Sports 2

Microsoft has done some pretty smart things with the sequel to Kinect Sports, mostly in terms of creating natural gesture controls. For example, in the golf game, you can look down the fairway by holding your hand above your eyes as if you were shielding them from the sun. Want to see the topography of the green? Get down on one knee as if you were checking it out in real life.

It's tough to argue with those decisions. You probably already own five motion-sports games, but Kinect Sports 2 seems insistent on giving you reasons to own it, too.

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Kinect Fun Labs

Announced by Microsoft at its E3 press conference Monday and available now on Xbox Live for free, Kinect Fun Labs is a constantly expanding collection of Kinect tech demos that show you new and interesting ways to use the system's camera.

You can create a bobblehead of yourself by taking your own picture, scan any object and create a 3-D version of it, draw in 3-D by using your fingers, etc. The demos don't always work the way you expect them to, but that's part of the fun of being on the bleeding edge of technology.

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Kinect Disneyland Adventures

A game that adults will probably not pay the slightest attention to but that kids will eat up, Disneyland Adventures is a virtual version of the famous theme park. Developed by Frontier, the studio that produced the Kinect launch game Kinectimals, it's a game that lets you wander around Disneyland, go on rides and interact with all the characters that wander the park.

Microsoft said during the demo that the title is the first open-world Kinect game "that we know of." (One would hope they'd be keeping tabs on that.) You can turn your shoulders to orient your onscreen kid in the right direction, and point with your arm to move forward. You can hug the characters (like Peter Pan, shown in the photo), but you can also accept quests from them to do other things in the park.

You'll be able to carry around a magic wand and nine other items, which all have different effects. The wand brings inanimate park objects to life briefly, making Monstro the whale animate, for example. The rides are action games based on the park attractions in which one or two players try to collect Mickey pins as they zip through the ride.

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

LOS ANGELES -- Microsoft pushed Kinect hard at E3 Expo, showing a wide range of new games that use the camera-based Xbox controller.

Soon, Kinect will drop you into the worlds of Star Wars and Disneyland, have you dancing with friends and playing more complicated sports games than the ones that launched with the system in November.

On the show floor here, Wired.com tried a range of new Kinect games that Microsoft will release this year. These are our impressions.

Above:

Kinect Star Wars

Grab a lightsaber and mow down droids! Use the Force to lift your enemies up and toss them aside! Kinect Star Wars is the first game that most people thought of when they saw the Wii for the first time, but Nintendo never got it done. Microsoft, however, has managed to get a saber-swinging, robot-flinging action game running on Kinect.

Though it didn't feel perfect, I think kids will absolutely love this game. It seemed pretty easy to play; just swinging my arms around pretty much laid waste to anything I felt like obliterating. It didn't feel especially accurate, but being placed in the middle of an authentic Star Wars battle does a lot to make one not really notice that.

Here’s The Thing With Ad Blockers

We get it: Ads aren’t what you’re here for. But ads help us keep the lights on. So, add us to your ad blocker’s whitelist or pay $1 per week for an ad-free version of WIRED. Either way, you are supporting our journalism. We’d really appreciate it.